Richmond Sockeyes

The Richmond Sockeyes are a Canadian Junior ice hockey team who play in the Pacific International Junior Hockey League, from Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. They were formerly a Tier II Junior "A" team in the British Columbia Hockey League from 1979-1990.

BCHL History

The Sockeyes were founded in the Pacific Coast Junior Hockey League in the 1970s. As PCJHL Champions, the Sockeyes defeated the BCJHL Champions in 1977 and 1979 for the Mowat Cup as British Columbia Junior "A" hockey champions. In 1977 the Sockeyes lost out to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Prince Albert Raiders for the Abbott Cup as Western Canadian Champions after winning the Doyle Cup as Alberta/BC Champions.

In 1979, the PCJHL merged with the BCJHL and along with it came the Richmond Sockeyes. From 1979 until 1990, the Sockeyes finished first place in the league 3 times and won the league in 1987. After winning the league, they defeated the Peace Cariboo Junior Hockey League's Quesnel Millionaires 2-games-to-none to win the Mowat Cup. Then they defeated the Red Deer Rustlers of the Alberta Junior Hockey League for the Doyle Cup 4-games-to-3. They moved on from there to beat the Humboldt Broncos of the SJHL to win the Abbott Cup and to earn a birth to the Centennial Cup.

They started out on their the National title quest by beating the Dartmouth Fuel Kids of the Metro Valley Junior Hockey League 7-3. They then lost out to host Humboldt Broncos 6-1. They pulled themselves together in the final game of the Round Robin to defeat the Central Junior A Hockey League's Pembroke Lumber Kings 4-1. The next day, Richmond and Pembroke squared off again, resulting in a 9-3 victory for the Sockeyes. This set up a Humboldt-Richmond final, their ninth game against each other in less than a month. The Richmond Sockeyes came out strong and pulled off a 5-2 victory to clinch their only National title.

In 1990, the town of Chilliwack, British Columbia bought the franchise rights to the team and created the Chilliwack Chiefs to make up for the Chilliwack Eagles ownership moving to Ladner, British Columbia. The Sockeyes reformed in the Junior "B" Pacific International Junior Hockey League.

PIJHL History

The team won the Bronze in the Keystone Cup in 2003 after missing out on the title game based on goal-ratio. [http://www.yourlibrary.ca/community/richmondreview/archive/RR20030417/sport.html]

The next year, 2004, they again won the PIJHL league championship, the Cyclone Taylor Cup provincial championship and this time placed 2nd in the Keystone Cup.

eason-by-Season Record

"Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against"

ee also

*List of ice hockey teams in British Columbia

External links

* [http://www.richmondsockeyes.com/ Richmond Sockeyes webpage]